Buy the unlocked 4S a few weeks from now in November. (Yes, Apple will be selling it officially!)

Use either the AT&T or T-Mobile prepaid plans. (You are pretty much guaranteed to save money over the cost of a two-year contract.)

Sell your 4S on Ebay after a year, and buy your new phone.

Voila. First-world problem solved. (This is what I'll be doing, anyways.)

Bonus: if AT&T or T-Mobile turn out to have bad reception in your apartment, you can effortlessly switch to the other carrier.

As far as I know, the 4S still doesn't support T-Mobile freqs for > 2G..

This is true, but they make up for it with a $30/mo plan that includes 100 minutes of talk and unlimited text and data. There's a $50/mo plan that includes unlimited everything. Personally, that's a trade-off I'm happy to make.

I can't find either of these plans on their website. I went to buy a Micro SIM card, and the only unlimited everything plan is 105$ a month. There is no 100 minute plan or 30$ plan that I can find.

Both are right here. The $30 plan is available online or through Walmart. Pre-paid monthly, no contract required.

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

Thanks, no idea why I didn't see this list before.

The $30 plan is only available at Walmart, even though it's still through T-Mobile. The $50/mo plan gives you unlimited everything, but requires going to a T-Mobile location to ask for it.

??

I'm confused. As I understand it, they are Monthly plans - you can get them online. I just did it two weeks ago:

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

Don't forget about the used market. There's a slew of people selling their iPhone 4 to upgrade to the 4S, and people are still buying the 3GS. If you really need to upgrade, but don't care if you're getting the latest and greatest, it looks like you can sell your 3GS for $200 and buy a 4 for $400 right now. If you're going to use it on Tmo's pre-paid, just make sure the new phone has an unlockable baseband.

Could be worse, if you got the best Android you'd get to watch new better ones come out every other week, and never ever get the new OS.

Change perspective: You get the faster iPhone 4 with all its kinks worked out. And the next time you upgrade you get the faster iPhone 5 with all its kinks worked out.

It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

I'd be very surprised if the iPhone 5 was released anytime before next July. More likely is that it'll be a fall release again.

Agreed. This is their best selling device yet. Apple isn't one to sit on its laurels, but why would they replace a flagship* product just 5 months after its introduction?

*(ignore that PPC iMac released before the Intel switch)

I really think it's possible they won't release it until June 2013, but another fall release is still probably more likely.

Don't feel bad. My work-supplied 3G still has 6 months left on contract. No iOS updates and crazy slow speed.

>crazy slow speed

What is wrong with the iphone 3G?

Well, not having security updates for something that you might use for email etc. is a bit scary too. (DigiNotar anyone?)

Yeah, that's a bummer too. Maybe that's a good thing to tell the boss so we can get upgraded early.

iOS4 and iOS4-compatible apps run very slow on my 3G, even with Spotlight turned off. Apps crash all the time including Safari. I've lost calls because of the phone bogging down at various times. That's just the top of my list.

Is it jailbroken? I have a 3G as well. Upgrading to 4.2.1 I enabled the multitasking switch but it made the phone unusable and unstable. Disabling multitasking got the phone back on track (I did lose Airprint). But the phone only occasionally bogs down and never drops a call (I know, hard to believe for an iPhone).

Nope. Stock iOS 4.2.1. I have no idea and don't really care anymore. It is what it is.

Beyond it being crazy slow?

I upgraded from the 3GS. The difference in processing speed is very noticeable. I used to have some apps lag the keyboard input because they were taxing the processor. Updating apps took awhile, and some opened slow. All that goes away thanks to more speed and dual-core; it is almost worth it just for that.

I'm doing the 4S and not worried at all about a 5 early next year (and i do believe it is eminently possible). I actually thought long and hard about upgrading at all.

If the 5 comes, there are still so many4 and 4S (and 3GS) phones in the market, apps are still going to work really well on it for a long time.

I do much less on my phone now that I have my iPad.

The camera, one of the major reasons for the upgrade, is unlikely to get much better on the 5.

If it turns out I'm wrong, I'll sale it jail broken (or pass it down to one of my kids in the family plan :). But I would be greatly surprised if a nee one shows up before next fall. I think Apple is OK with moving the iPhones to the holiday release schedule.

Unless you spend the extra money to buy a new phone every year, you're going to have to watch as your new shiny gets one-upped by something better either way, so you might as well go for something better now.

I am on the 3GS cycle too and I am holding until the 5. I want to get the really new stuff not the somewhat improved versions.

I've just replaced a 3GS with a 4S as I saw it as a major upgrade.

You're getting a massively improved camera (including flash, increased resolution, HD video, HDR), front facing camera, retina display, improved processor, SIRI, new form factor, iOS5 running at an acceptable speed (it's a dog on the 3GS), potentially greater capacity if you go for the 64Gb.

The fact it's not a major change from the 4 in some regards surely isn't a factor for those of us with 3GSs as we never had the 4? It's certainly a major change from the 3GS.

Indeed it would be a major change for me, but I am still holding out so I can get on the other cycle.